Hell in a handbasket
by ohmykhr
Summary: How was Fran supposed to know that inviting a demon to his home wasn't a good idea? Demon AU.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: **This au has been on my mind for a few months now and I finally got to writing it. I don't have a PhD in demons (yet) so don't sue me if something seems off. I hope you like this fic and if you do, please let me know, it would make my day! Thank you for reading my work.

* * *

For as long as Fran had known her, Chrome had been into anything and everything paranormal - her house was filled with crystals, she owned several decks of tarot and other reading cards and had spell books and herbs lying around her room.

Fran, on the other hand, had always been a sceptic. If you asked him, it was all just a big mumbo jumbo to scare people.

So, naturally when Chrome had asked him to try out the ouija board with her, Fran had accepted. It was just a children's toy, after all.

The two of them sat on the centre of Fran's living room, which was the most spacious area in his otherwise cramped house. Chrome had been concentrated and serious as she laid out the wooden plate, explaining briefly the rules to Fran, who was picking his nose in disinterest.

_Too many rules for kids' game_, he thought to himself.

Chrome had been the one to do most of the talking, asking if anyone was there with them, if anyone wanted to communicate, but nothing came through.

Only silence surrounded them.

Fran had grown bored and he felt bad for Chrome, who had been so excited about the board, so he decided to spice it up a notch.

''Any demons here?'' He deadpanned. Chrome's face went pale and she hissed at Fran. ''Communicate with us, make yourself at home.''

Chrome had gone livid and nagged at him about the dangers of inviting something sinister to his home. Fran had simply waved her off and they closed the board immediately after. Nothing had come through the board for the entire night and everything had been normal after Chrome left, too.

In the morning, everything was different.

* * *

Fran knew someone was in his room as soon as woke up.

Something evil, watching him, waiting.

He cursed himself for not sleeping with a knife under his pillow in case of a robbery, but reminded himself that he had nothing worth stealing anyway.

So, instead of theft he was going to get murdered.

Fantastic.

Hesitantly, he sat up and opened his eyes, blinking away the sleep from his eyes. At the end of his bed stood a lanky male dressed in an all black Victorian suit. The first two buttons of the undershirt were undone, revealing a peek of the man's almost transparent white skin.

What caught him off guard were the two jet black horns poking out of the unruly blonde hair and a set of bat like wings. The man had tucked them neatly behind his back - they would've bumped something down otherwise.

''Erm…'' Fran scratched his cheek nervously. ''Who the fuck are you?''

The man grinned wildly, revealing a pair of sharp fangs. ''I'm Belphegor, one of Hell's seven princes and the demon of sloth. You summoned me, mortal.''

Fran eyed the male from head to toe once more, coming to a conclusion. Chrome must've told Mukuro what they had done last night. It wouldn't be the first time for him to try to prank Fran.

''Sure you are, buddy.'' Fran pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance and rose up. ''I appreciate the effort, but I don't have time for your fantasy roleplay nonsense. Tell Mukuro to try harder next time.''

The man - Belphegor - was agitated. He grabbed Fran by the forearm as he tried to walk past him.

Fran yelped in surprise, looking at the hand that easily wrapped around his skinny arm. Only then did Fran notice long, black claws which were grazing his skin. Red marks were already forming on the area from the tightness of his grip.

''You dare to ridicule the prince of hell, mortal?'' Belphegor snarled.

''First of all, it's Fran,'' he tried to tug his arm free from his iron grasp, ''and second of all, you can drop the act now. Also stop calling yourself the prince of hell, it's kind of embarrassing.''

The lack of fear and self defense seemed to momentarily stun Belphegor long enough for Fran to snatch his arm away, rubbing on the area he had grabbed.

''Now, shoo. I have somewhere to be.''

_He is no ordinary mortal_, Belphegor figured as he watched Fran walk away, unfazed by the demon.

A wicked grin rose on his lips.

_This could be fun._

* * *

''So,'' Fran stole some fries from Chrome, who only shot him an annoyed glare, ''caught any demons on your way home?''

Chrome would've smacked him across the head had they not been in a public place. He reached for the fries again, but Chrome was quicker and slapped his hand away.

Fran rubbed his hand and faked a hurt expression on his face.

''No,'' she admitted, ''what about you?''

He thought about the blonde man from this morning, standing in the middle of his room and claiming to be a prince of Hell. Fran would bet all of his money - which wasn't a lot - on Chrome falling for the act and believing he was a demon.

''Oh yeah, my place is filled with demons. We're having a tea party after this, you should come.''

Chrome rolled her eyes at him. "You're a prick."

A mischievous glint flashed across his emerald eyes. ''Yet I'm your favorite person, who you hang out with almost daily," he said, not missing a beat, ''what does that say about you?''

''That I have a bad taste in friends.'' She said, yet her eyes were filled with affection. There was no bite in her words. There never was.

Fran offered her a quick smile before stealing more food from her plate and earning a vulgar hand gesture in the process.

"Oh right, you can tell Mukuro his prank failed." Fran licked the salt from his fingers before wiping them on a napkin. "Though his friend _almost_ had me."

Chrome gave him a long, confused stare. "What prank? What friend?"

"You know what prank," He muttered, "I mean the tall, lanky guy? His name is Belsomething. Dresses really funny."

She shook her head, purple hair whipping from side to side to follow the movement. "I don't know him."

Fran studied her, trying to spot any signs of her lying. There were none.

He gave up, shrugging off the topic. "Must be a new friend, then."

* * *

The front door creaked loudly when Fran opened it, making him wince at the screeching sound. No matter how many years he had lived in that house, he'd never get used to the sound.

The house seemed more vacant than it had been in the morning - there was no sign of Belphegor, which Fran was deeply grateful for.

Something grabbed his attention as soon as he took a step forward.

_What's that smell?_

Fran brought his hand up against his nose, trying to block out the gut turning reek filling his house.

The smell of rotten eggs and _death_ lingered in the air. As if something was decomposing inside, but he couldn't locate the reason behind the smell. Nothing should be causing the smell, he had taken the trash out before meeting with Chrome.

Maybe the house was starting to rot from old age and would collapse and bury him under one of these days. Fran shuddered. What a way to go.

Holding his nose with one hand, Fran started spraying lemon scented air freshener all over the house, eventually getting rid of the sickening smell. He might get an asthma attack from the amount of air freshener, but he was willing to risk that.

If the smell came back, he would have to call the landlord in case there was a dead body rotting somewhere. That wouldn't be pleasant.

After eating his daily dose of chicken flavored cup noodles, Fran took his laptop to bed and began to read a long academic text. He'd have to pull an all-nighter to make up for the missed hours last night or else he would fail his exams desperately.

No longer than fifteen minutes later, his eyes were feeling heavy and it took every last bit of his focus to keep them open. Twenty minutes and he had fallen asleep with the laptop open on his lap, illuminating his face with blue light.

A long shadow appeared on the wall behind Fran, but he didn't as much as stir in his sleep. Not until the lights in the room flashed on from the command of snapping fingers.

With his heart pounding against his chest, Fran straightened himself and looked around the room in mild panic.

"Hello, mortal." Belphegor grinned from the end of the bed, "Hope I didn't interrupt your nap."

Fran took a few deep breaths and waited for his heart to settle. He eyed Belphegor warily, noticing the change of attire - tonight he was wearing a dark red three piece suit with a black vest with black velvet details. Much to Fran's disappointment, he had kept the horns and wings on.

"Are you stalking me?" He asked, praying for his voice to not fail him. This prank had gone too far. "How did you even get in?"

Belphegor waved his hand dismissively before shoving them in his pockets, leaning forward ever so slightly.

He crouched a lot, Fran noted.

"Through the portal, of course."

Fran stared at him.

"The portal to Hell? What are you, an imbecile?"

After a long, awkward silence Fran cleared his throat. "Right, of course. Because you're a…_demon._ And my room has a portal straight to hell."

Belphegor simply nodded as if he was confirming the weather for him.

"Well," Fran snapped his laptop shut, "next time you see Satan, tell him I said hi."

"As if He would have time to-" Belphegor paused. "You're messing with me, aren't you?"

Fran couldn't see his eyes but he could feel them following his every move. Perhaps he needed to be more wary of him.

"Of course not." He deadpanned. "Also, you can't just come here uninvited. You're breaking the law. And you're stalking me."

Belphegor cocked his head to the side, his grin never fading from his face. Something about it made Fran's skin crawl.

"You invited me here, mortal," he said nonchalantly, "_make yourself at home_, those were your exact words."

_I might've made a mistake,_ Fran realized.


	2. Chapter 2

That morning was the worst one in Fran's life without a doubt. He was running late because a certain nuisance with a blond mop of a hair and horns had occupied his thoughts, keeping him awake until sunrise. Because of the lack of sleep, he had fallen asleep during an exam, automatically failing both the exam _and _the course which pushed back his graduation time. On top of all that, a passing car splattered mud and water all over him, so by the time Fran got back to his now freezing apartment, he was pissed off, tired and soaked.

''Hello, mortal.''

And seeing Belphegor slouching against the wall with an annoying grin spread on his lips as soon as he got home certainly didn't improve his mood.

''Bel, I'm not in the mood for any of your nonsense.'' Fran stated as he marched towards the radiator, which must've gone off while he was away - the house was _freezing _which certainly wasn't the best combination with the damp clothes clinging onto his body. ''Go back to whatever layer of Hell you crawled from.''

''Aw, don't be so rude,'' Belphegor cooed, ''I love it in this charming, ready-to-collapse little dump you call home. It's so cozy.''

Fran decided to ignore him and instead examined the radiator, turning it on and off several times before slamming it with his fist in frustration.

Broken.

From across the room, Belphegor studied Fran as he slumped to sit down on the floor, muttering about landlords and useless old shacks. Most humans would have thrown a fit at this point or at least cursed loudly - at least that's what Belphegor has learned from his experiences with humans. Fran was different, had been from the moment he had met him, which impressed the demon on some level.

''You know,'' Belphegor looked around the room with disgust radiating from his expression. He made zero effort to hide his distaste for the sad excuse Fran called his house. ''I could fix all your problems.''

Fran snapped his head up as if he had forgotten Belphegor was still there, which was likely. ''How?''

With a few long strides Belphegor was standing in front of Fran holding out his hand towards him. Fran stared at his hand with suspicious eyes. ''Make a deal with me,'' Belphegor shrugged with a grin planted on his lips, ''it'll only cost your soul.''

Fran tried to hold himself back from rolling his eyes, but failed. Instead of taking the demon's hand, he pushed it aside and got up from the floor, dusting off his still damp pants. The fabric of his jeans stuck onto his legs uncomfortably.

''I'm just having a bad day, but I'm not stupid,'' Fran said, ''I don't believe in demons or fairies or any of that supernatural mumbo jumbo.''

"The prince is a real demon!"

"Oh yeah?" Fran challenged, "Prove it."

The demon complied and with a quick snap of his fingers, the radiator clicked and warm air started to spread out from it.

"Neat, the radiator started to work." Fran squatted in front of it to warm his hands, humming in approval as the warmth blew onto his hands.

"Because _I _fixed it with my powers. Is that enough proof for you, mortal?"

"That was just a coincidence."

Belphegor's hand flew up where his heart would be, clutching the fabric of his button up shirt. ''_ A coincidence? _You call my powers a coincidence?'' he gasped as if Fran had insulted him in the most vulgar way, ''I oughta kill you for that, mortal.''

''What's holding you back?'' Fran dared.

Belphegor was quiet for a while as if he was contemplating whether to say something to the human or not. Instead of answering his question, Belphegor pointed a clawed finger at Fran. ''After I make deal with you I will slowly rip your soul to shreds before devouring it,'' he promised and snapped his fingers again.

''You didn't answer my-'' Fran turned to argue back, but was met with an empty space where Belphegor had just stood. He stared at the spot expectantly for a while, waiting for the man to come back so he could finish his argument. When Belphegor didn't return, he huffed softly to himself and headed to change to a dry, clean set of clothes.

_If he thinks he can leave in the middle of a debate, he is wrong, _Fran thought.

Later that day Fran invited Chrome over so he could finally have someone to force him to focus on studying instead of procrastinating his responsibilities. For the sake of his friend, he cleaned around the cramped apartment to make it more comfortable and to avoid a lecture from her.

''It smells like dead bodies and sulfur in here,'' Chrome said as soon as she got inside, bringing her hand up to pinch her nose. Fran, who had gotten used to the occasional stink in the house during the last few days, hadn't even noticed the change.

''I'm suspecting that there's a dead body hidden somewhere,'' he stated and walked back to the kitchen where he poured two cups of tea for them, ''that or a dead animal.''

Chrome's face scrunched up in disgustion like it always did whenever Fran said something terrible or obscene. He was more than familiar with the expression.

Chrome blew on her beverage and took a dainty sip before she spoke. ''I hope it's not a dead body at least.''

''Yeah, it'd be such a hassle, getting rid of the body and everything. So much unnecessary burden.''

''No, it'd mean someone would have _died _, Fran. It'd be sad, not a burden.''

Fran shrugged. ''It'd be a little bit of a burden, too.''

On their way to Fran's room, Chrome suddenly stopped on her tracks, claiming she sensed something evil in the house. Fran tried to reason with her, but the girl refused to go to his room.

''Chrome, I'm telling you there's nothi-''

''Hello, mortal,'' Fran turned around to face a widely grinning Belphegor, ''or mortals, it seems.''

Chrome rushed to Fran's side, holding onto his sleeve with her free hand - not because she was scared or needed protection, but to protect Fran if she had to. She had taken enough self defense classes to deck a man if needed, demon or not.

''Fran, who's this?'' Chrome asked cautiously, eyeing Belphegor up and down.

''I'm Belphegor one of the seven de-''

''-that's Bel, he is my stalker slash roommate, I guess. Though, he doesn't even pay rent.''

While Belphegor was glaring at Fran, Chrome took that time to take in the man's appearance and energy. The more she was in his presence, the more she was certain this man wasn't from this world.

''Fran, I think that's a demon.'' Chrome finally said, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder.

''Thank you, finally some recognition!'' Belphegor sighed, throwing his hands up dramatically, catching Chrome off guard. She never considered demons to be of the dramatic kind. ''This buffoon over here has refused to acknowledge me.''

''Because you're not really a demon,'' Fran shrugged and turned to Chrome, ''he's not really a demon.''

''No, I think he is, though.'' Chrome pointed at the jet black horns sticking out from Belphegor's head as the latter beamed proudly as if she had complimented him.

Fran eyed the man once again, trying to see what Chrome was seeing, what made Belphegor a dark entity instead of a regular person in a costume. Sure, weird coincidences had been happening ever since he and Belphegor met and he appeared out of the blue, but all of those could be explained with something more logical than demons.

''Even if he was a demon, which I'm not saying he is, what would it change?'' Fran said, ''I'm not making a deal with him, demon or not.''

''You could take precautions and not piss him off,'' Chrome replied, ''demons can be very dangerous when riled up or insulted''

Fran scratched his cheek thoughtfully with his free hand. ''It's too late for that, I have insulted him plenty already.''

''Stop talking as if I'm not standing right here,'' Belphegor argued, the tone of his voice getting higher along with his annoyance. His complaints seemed to go to deaf ears as Chrome pushed Fran towards his bedroom, completely ignoring the demon.

Belphegor was only few steps behind them, crossing his arms across his chest in protest. ''Don't you dare to ignore the prince, mortal!''

''We can focus on the demon issue later, now you have more important things to focus on,'' Chrome stated, placing her tea cup on Fran's nightstand, ''like the fact that you're failing some of your classes.''

Fran grabbed a few chunky books, slamming them down to the bed before sighing in defeat. Chrome was right - this was no time to get distracted by demons occupying his home.

The bed mattress shifted slightly as Chrome sat down next to him, skipping through his messy notes, desperately trying to make sense what read in them.

The silence was Belphegor's cue to stride over to the bed and grab a book out of Fran's hands. ''If you made a deal with me, you wouldn't have to study,'' he tempted with a wicked smile, ''perfect grades and success, just like that.''

''Don't listen to him, Fran,'' Chrome interrupted and took the book back from the demon's grasp, ''nothing is free and everything comes with a price.''

''I wasn't going to.'' Fran opened one of the text books on his lap, sparing no glance towards Belphegor, ''If you're not gonna be helpful then don't distract me. If you do I'll…''

''Throw holy water on him?'' Chrome suggested.

''Yes, I'll throw holy water on you.'' Fran warned, even though they all knew there were nothing holy or sacred in his home.

Belphegor shrugged off the threat and walked towards the end of the room where Fran had first spotted him few days ago. ''Suit yourself,'' the demon said, glancing towards Fran over his shoulder, ''the offer stands, if you change your mind when you fail.''

Fran didn't know how, but somehow Belphegor managed to create a massive, blazing hole to his floor.

_If that leaves a permanent mark, I'm going to kill him, _Fran promised.

With a wave of his hand, Belphegor hopped down to the hole as it swallowed him whole, the portal disappearing with him.

''That guy sure likes to make a scene, huh?'' Chrome noted, turning back to inspect the handwritten notes.


End file.
